Fats, Vitamins and Minerals

I can smell the pollution from the streets outside coming through the window of our apartment here in Quezon City. It is indeed quite bad. Doctors have found something wrong with my mother’s lungs and they are doing more x-rays. She might be recommended to stay outside the city. Except in the office when she was still working, my mom never had airconditioning and she always took the jeepney to commute to work. My mom doesn’t like airconditioning and I can understand her. I don’t like it either: the cold air inflames my nasal passages and dries up my skin. It also uses a great deal of energy. But it seems to be one of the ways by which people here protect themselves from pollution. Our neighbors have aircon rooms and travel in aircon cars so they don’t get respiratory diseases related to air pollution. It’s quite unfair that only the rich can afford to be healthy now especially here in Manila. God I hope this doesn’t happen in places like GenSan.

Land formation over GenSan and South Cotabato, taken just a few minutes after take-off.

If you build a concrete house with tiny windows and low roofs, and pave the surrounding area with concrete for carparking and chop down the trees then you will create for yourself the need for airconditioning in this tropical country. It’s insane. Traditionally, houses were surrounded by vegetation, had high roofs, had wide windows and were raised from the ground. They were also made of wood, bamboo and in combinationn with bricks from clay or limestone from crushed seashells. With the structure of the house alone you wouldn’t need airconditioning because the “airconditioning” is built into the house.

I don’t miss anything about Manila, and I miss a lot about GenSan. I wish my mom could retire in a healthy environment - she deserves it. When my partner and I do make the move, our house will have space for her.

Waiting for departure at GenSan airport.

But things can still get better. We were told that Lions Beach in GenSan is paradise now compared to a few years before. It was like a septic tank and the only people swimming in it were dead people. But now it is relatively clean considering it’s open and free to the public with “24-hour service.” When we went there, there were lots of kids swimming… although it did not look so clean because it was late afternoon and the waves were quite strong and had swept together much of the garbage in one place.

So, Manila too can still get better, but maybe not in my lifetime.

Apart from the fact that my caregiver is having problems continuing any crochet work because of the pain in her hands and arms, I am having problems continuing Prolog because of logic! I mean, what about my dog logic???

I have also been on vacation for two weeks in General Santos City in Mindanao. My second time to be there, actually. And this time I brought Maria with me. Below is my photo with Maria just outside the nice little house where we stayed in at VS Homes in Purok Malakas. I quite like the place …

There are two gray and white cats (one with a long tail and the other with a stub tail) visiting the house daily, just passing through. Outside are several dogs, not as cute as meself, of course, but friendlier, healthier and cleaner than most dogs I’ve met back home in Manila. One light brown dog with a rather scruffy face and a stubby little tail kept siffing and looking under our gate … must be from the CIA.

My caregiver brought her crochet along and has been slowly working through a vintage yoke design which she is improvising into a skirt. She is also practising filet crochet, yet another interesting technique with very interesting instruction languages - there’s the straightforward text instruction, and there are the visual ones: the chart and the table, things that I shall look into more closely later. Below is a photo of myself with my caregiver’s work in progress.

In the meantime, a bit of beauty rest before getting back to work and blogging.

We will be leaving GenSan soon. I joked my partner who has been suddenly quiet while discussing with Ali that he finally met his match - Ali talked so much more than he could. I guess the quiet is also because of the thought of leaving; we already feel very much at home here.

Lions Beach, General Santos City

We hope to visit the Visayas afterwards, perhaps Baclayon, in Bohol, where I stayed for some 8 days in 1999. Then we can make a decision about where to settle. The only thing I miss about Manila is my family. I hope things work out, I hope things in my life don’t spiral downwards again … I had a bad dream this afternoon, a dream that brought back the feelings of being pushed to the edge of my emotional limits and then the total exhaustion and numbness that ensues. I woke up crying and couldn’t breathe…

I went out of the room and saw that the room next door was closed. I tried opening it but it was locked. I thought that it must’ve been shut by the wind and the knob pushed to lock position, something which Alma warned us about so advised that we keep the house keys in the kitchen and not in the bedrooms.

Later, I told my partner about the room when he came back from swimming at Cambridge Farms, but he opened it easily - it wasn’t locked at all. Either I was still dreaming that time or the house ghost played a trick on me.

Anyway, my latest crochet project is doing well - from a yoke design I am contructing a skirt, and have now moved on to filet crochet for the “body” of the skirt.

I bought several balls of thread (each 175 meters) at Gaisano mall yesterday, the local Monaco and Canon brands. They were much cheaper here than in Manila at 22 and 25 pesos each respectively.

I don’t know if it’s because of the crochet or the emotional stress, but the pain in my right shoulder has started to spread to my chest and neck. The emotional stress also restricted my breathing. I hope all return to normal soon…

A wonderful time at Durian Garden in Polomolok, South Cotabato the other day. Even Edward had a really great time. Below is a photo taken by Alma of Edward with all his fans.

I took photos of many plant varieties growing there and will post on Korakora gallery when I get back to Quezon City.

In the meantime, the US, Australia (and recently Canada) have issued warnings of terrorist attacks here in Mindanao (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6578531.stm), a warning shrugged off by the Philippine government. It seems that the US (and consequently Australia, Canada, Britain, aka the “international community”) are again keen on building up the latest terror campaign in the Philippines.

Previous terror campaigns implemented by these First World Countries in my country include destructive mining, power generation, militarism and agriculture.

“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency discovered DBCP (pesticide) could cause cancer and sterility and severely restricted its use in 1977. It was banned in the United States in 1979 and in 1980 in the Philippines.It was still being used in the Philippines well into the 1980s, lawyers say.Dow Chemical Co., Shell Oil Co. and Occidental Chemical Corp. sold the pesticide to Dole Food Co., Del Monte Fresh Produce and Chiquita Brands International Inc., which used it in the Philippines and about a dozen other countries.

In 1993, more than 16,000 banana plantation workers, including thousands of Filipinos, filed a class-action suit in Texas against the manufacturers and fruit companies.” - From Jim Gomez / AP 1997

“The American capitalists intensified their spoliation in Mindanao. In 1957, Firestone Tire and Rubber Company was awarded 1,000 hectares of land in Makilala, North Cotabato for a rubber plantation. In 1963, Dole Philippines, subsidiary of the Castle and Cook Company acquired vast tracts of land in Tupi and Polomolok, Cotabato for its pineapple plantations. In 1966, Weyerhaueser Corporation obtained 72,000 hectares of forest lands in Mindanao for its logging operation…”

“War in Mindanao is basically a war to ensure US continuing rape and plunder of the island’s remaining resource base as well as ensuring that Mindanao play its role to the fullest in maintaining US world hegemony in part of the world. The White House issued a document last September, 2002 which states, ‘it is to reaffirm the essential role of American military strength in order to dissuade future military competition. We must be strong enough to dissuade potential adversaries from pursuing or equaling the power of the United States.” - From “Mindanao” Land Raped and Plundered”

So who are the terrorists again?

Two days ago, my partner and I finally managed to visit the resort and restaurant farm called “Cambridge” just across our subdivision here in General Santos City. Our target was the pool.

My accomplishment for that day was getting my eyes open under water. I can’t swim at all. Although I play around in water, I have an irrational fear of water since I was a teenager, perhaps after the experience of being thrown over by strong waves that jumped behind me while I was standing waist deep in a beach in Cavite or Lingayen, Pangasinan (I cannot remember anymore exactly where it was). Anyway, the feeling of getting your head thrown under water and salt water getting into your nose and mouth, and being in darkness flailing your arms and legs around trying to grab onto something solid, was not a very pleasant one. (A feeling called “drowning”).

However, I have since many months ago, with my partner’s encouragement, decided to learn to overcome this fear and learn to swim. We were too tightwad to enroll in a swimming class so I felt that I could probably learn on my own. Besides, this is probably the best way since the pressure of learning to swim in a swimming class would only reinforce my fear and refusal to learn.

At least once a month, we pay a visit to the public pool at our housing in Quezon City, and for the past 5 months I’ve been observing my body and mind’s behaviour towards the presence of water.

Our landlady is terrified of water and swimming and I can understand what seems to be an irrational behaviour, saying “no” and “no” and “no, no” to each invitation “to swim”, “it’s fun”, “I’ll teach you”, “it’s safe.”

The behaviour is towards the unfamiliar and the (as in my case) unpleasant. So getting used to the water again first is important - knee deep, waist deep or breast deep, whatever one feels comfortable in.

Anyway, after each visit to the pool, the realizions of a water-bound environment build up: when your head is under water, don’t breathe in; when your head is above the water, you can breathe in; it’s easier to float with your head down; if you can see under water (a motivation to open your eyes), it is easier to try to swim towards a target; kicking your legs can help keep afloat and in motion; waving your arms can do a similar thing. So, swimming is simply a synchronization of such logical actions/reactions to a water environment.

According to my auntie’s auntie (who was then around 90 years old), all students were required to learn swimming at the university after the Titanic disaster. When I went to university in the 80s, that was no longer the tradition for a long time, and so I took up tap dancing, social dancing, and camping for physical education instead. The only contact with water there was for drinking, cooking and bathing.

But I do like water a lot despite an earlier bad experience. And I suppose the logic of water is just too obvious to impose an irrational fear and loathing of it. The power of water has its own inacessible logic too, the power to both give life and take life, such that it is easier to accept that expert swimmers who insist on swimming at the beach or sailing off to sea on a Good Friday will drown than it is to accept that our landlady has an irrational fear of water.

Perhaps Tuesday, we’ll go back to Cambridge for swimming. Too bad Lion’s Beach is too dirty. However, Alma told me that it had gotten so much better. The problem really is complicated since the city market is also there. But getting the balance right between human life and the life of the environment has got to be possible without degenerating into fencing off the entire beach area by buying everyone off and building an expensive beach resort. It is possible to get that balance at the individual and small community level as evident in the difference between the careless littering around our housing area in Quezon City and the rather clean environment here in Purok Malakas, Barangay Lagao, in GenSan.

Already a week in General Santos city. It is really good to be back in GenSan. I guess it is a good idea to stay for some 2 weeks, live in a house and do our own cooking, etc., to see how things go, whether there was anything about Manila that we’d miss. And then when we return to Quezon City, see what it is about being in GenSan that we’d miss.

Staying in a modest 2-bedroom house here in VS Homes, we are managing very well as we have in our apartment in QC. What is strikingly different is the freshness of vegetables, meats and fish in the nearby market since most of the time, fruits and vegetables look so tired in the markets or the mall supermarkets back home. It was quite a surprise, though, to see how bad the vegetables were at the Gaisano mall here in GenSan. They were better in KCC and definitely much better at the satellite market here in Masaya, a bit of distance from the town center but just about 15 or so minutes walk from VS Homes.

Till now I am not having chest pains, and even as I continue my crocheting here (stopping frequently to rest), I don’t have the hand and arm pains as before. My partner suspects the pain to be symptoms of heavy metal poisoning (due to air pollution in Manila), my suspicions too, although I did not attribute it directly to air pollution but rather to food.

As with Baguio and Vigan, quite worrying is the effect of the transport sector on air pollution here in GenSan. For now, GenSan - even the town proper - is not as bad as Baguio or Vigan. Because public transport is so closely linked to the livelihood of many Filipinos (especially jeepney and tricycle drivers, operators and mechanics), getting a solution at that level has been extremely difficult if there is an immediate economic burden with benefits too long term to appreciate. But there are more socially relevant solution - not just an economic issue - which I’d like to deal with later.

In the meantime, the Mexican solution could be of interest (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6519601.stm)

The visit to Lions Beach was utterly disappointing. I felt depressed. The water was full of garbage - plastic mall and supermarket bags, slippers, packaging from food products, etc. Surprising to hear on the business news today that local consumption of plastic lowered by over half since 2002. Of course, this “consumption” probably only means the local manufacture of plastic products and does not include the importation of plastic (i.e. plastic packaging for food, cosmetics, etc.). Local manufacture cannot compete with cheaper imported plastics (thus local plastic industry is seeking a tariff cut on raw materials used in the manufacture of plastic).

In Sierre, I was surprised that one could either bring one’s own reusable market bag or get a plastic (or paper) grocery bag from the store at extra cost. The system was the same in Amsterdam, Helsinki, and I suspect in many other countries in Europe that prioritize environmental issues and consumption of non-biodegradable products. Here - either in the malls or the markets - you buy a chicken that gets placed in a thin chicken company plastic bag, that gets placed in another poultry section plastic bag, and then another supermarket plastic bag. And all the plastic bags are free.

In the vernacular, market-goers carry their own “bayong”, traditionally made of woven coconut leaves or buri or other suitable fiber. So long before the wasteful practices of plastic in plastic in plastic, we already got our values and systems right simply because it made more sense to the market-goer and the seller and the immediate environment (who needs all that plastic in between?), as those countries in Europe are doing perhaps more because of the concern with the being “eco-friendly”. So, it’s not that our values got corrupted by the wasteful and consumptive lifestyles brought by capitalist expansion, but we didn’t quite make the connect between old and new practices: why they are different and which makes more sense in the vernacular.

The “bayong” is still around - but mostly as Philippine souvenir products for the tourist industry. So there goes Philippine culture and heritage - out of the (getting less and less discerning) lifestyle of the Filipino and on the culture and heritage pedestal. Is this what “Proud to be Pinoy” truly means? Hmmm …

Anyway, here in GenSan, it seems that even with all the plastic packaging around, people still have a much greater sense of responsibility (and ownership) towards their environment than in Manila. I have not seen “armies” of street sweepers as one would see in Manila yet I have not seen plastic packaging and such garbage being blown by wind out in the streets. Numerous times I’ve seen people in Manila automatically and mindlessly toss the foil packet after consuming a bag of chips or biscuits, but perhaps here in GenSan such habits are not as common.

It has to be related to the way people feel about the environment in particular the public and shared spaces. If there is a high feeling of alienation and lack of a feeling of control and a kind of common ownership over a shared space, then there would be less care and concern for such a space.

In the meantime, my partner and I just kindly refuse plastic in plastic in plastic packaging (to the surprise of sales staff in shops). One plastic is enough, at least until we are allowed to bring our own “bayong” inside the supermarket (they always ask you to check-in your bags before entering the supermarket, supposedly for security reasons).

See also “Bayong instead of plastic bags” by Dan Mariano

Beginning April, I am keeping log of the various hand, arm, chest and neck pains that I’ve been experiencing (I have decided to actually use the diary calendar given by the Central Bank, it is quite beautiful, and such beautiful calendar/planners I often wouldn’t use at all!). I’ve consulted a doctor two years ago and have gotten ECG and chest x-ray. Nothing wrong there. So my doctor just prescribed Vitamin B Complex.

From January to March in the diary-calendar I’m writing down some of my favorite recipes. For now, they are recipes for Indian breads/cakes taken from “Creative Vegetarian Cooking” by Veena Panjwani. The first recipe I’ve decided to try is something called “Onion Cake.”

With limited ingredients at home, I improvised the recipe a bit and thus came up with “Onion Parsley Cake” using white onions rather than stalks of spring onion as were required in the recipe. The recipe consisted of a dough (flour, water) and the filling (finely chopped onion (and parsley) marinated in salt, pepper (or red chilli powder) and sesame oil).

I have never done any dough making before and this proved to be quite fun - almost magical, in fact, that some powder and water could be kneaded into something big (and even bigger if the recipe called for yeast or self-rising flour).

Kneading was enjoyable especially since the pain in my hands have almost completely disappeared. Not very clear to me, though, was why hot water must be used first then after a few minutes kneading, few tablespoons of cold water was used. Also, the reason for letting the dough stand for an hour wasn’t clear to me. I wish recipes would explain such things, especially since I’m completely ignorant of the baking (with and without ovens) process.

Then the dough is rolled into flat thin cakes, sprinkled with the onion filling, rolled in half, sealed and then fried in oil until golden brown.

“Onion Cake” was reasonably successful. I will only need to make the cakes much much thinner. It was tricky since I didn’t have a rolling pin and have only used a bottle. If I could make it as thin as the papadams* (imported from India) that I bought at a supermarket in Brisbane, then that would be great.

In the meantime, here’s a photo of the kalachuchi cutting that I took at my mom’s when I went there two days ago. The tiny rolled-up leaves have grown so much bigger. I told Asel that later we might need to take it out of the pot and transplant it in the yard at the back of the house.

It was nice to have been able to go out and walk around to look at the plants and garden in the area around our apartment block. People here are really marvelous with plants, and being summer time, everything is blooming and fruiting.

I saw a guy with a big siamese cat in the garden and we approached him. His cat, quite old at 11 (perhaps as old as George, come to think of it…), had a leash and my partner said that the cat thinks he’s a dog. Which is rather true. The cat did behave like a dog on a leash.

And because Edward was with me, he did have a good time strolling out in the gardens.

With all these care for gardens and animals, I still couldn’t figure out why there were more places riddled with garbage, spit and dog (and human) shit. Oops, sorry to those having their dinner. The polarity of care and carelessness is just mind-boggling.

For example, there’s a shed nearby where people living in the apartment blocks can throw their garbage where they could be sorted out/segregated by Girlie and her friends (the maintenance staff employed by the housing system). I saw this kid carrying a bin just dump the garbage in front of the shed - didn’t even bother to put it in a trash bag first.

I don’t get it.

And all that spit in the streets (I didn’t mind too much in Burma since a number of people there chew betelnut). And I have rather gotten used to encountering spit of all shapes, sizes, color out in the streets whether here or in Yangon or Bangkok but it can get rather disconcerting when they’re right there in the pathways or the walkways in our apartment blocks.

I told my partner that maybe it’s because of the air pollution. Here, your lungs get clogged up with dirt and so you harbor loads of phlegm in your lungs and throat all the time. That’s why people keep spitting. Just this very minute I could hear the sound of someone’s footsteps outside along the common pathway of our apartment blocks and then a loud hack and spat.

What a horrible job for Girlie and her friends I thought. One time I was on the way to the apartment and saw so much garbage in one of the apartment buildings. I met Girlie and I told her how incredible it was, and she remarked sadly, yes, they are pigs.

How true. Girlie who can’t even afford to live in one of these apartments find such people here as pigs. How remarkably true.

The procession of the Nazareno (Christ carrying the cross), the Dead Christ and the Dolorosa (sorrowful mother) passed our window. The Nazareno was accompanied by recorded music, the Dead Christ was accompanied by a live band, and the Dolorosa with recorded music. Although all funerary music, the live band was much livelier and could even almost sound like Hindustani music.

Oh well. Happy Easter to all those who celebrate it.

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Papadam is a thin South Asian wafer, sometimes described as a cracker or flatbread, typically made from lentil, chickpea, black gram or rice flour.